Winemaking in the tropics

I'm a homebrewer looking to make my first forays into winemaking, I've got my first one-gallon kit in the mail. I'm thinking of eventually moving up to 5 gallon batches, but I'm about concerned about ageing in the wine in the hot climate where I live. The air temperature is generally about 75 on average, and would unlikely ever get much below 70 even in the coldest part of my apartment. It seems like that's a reasonable temperature for primary fermentation (I could get lower ferm temps using swamp cooler type arrangements). But as for ageing, my understanding is that anything much above 60 degrees isn't is going to cause the wine to develop too quickly and detract from flavors. For a one-gallon batch I could probably figure out a way to shove five bottles in the kitchen fridge for six months, but with five gallons that's out of the question. Do I need to consider a wine fridge if I want to make a serious stab at making wine in relevant volumes? I could probably work that out, but would want to know up front if that's necessary. Much appreciate your thoughts.

Currently, I'm stuck in an apartment also, swinging between 65-70 F. I have roughly 200+ bottles of wine, plus 50-70 gallons bulk aging in my hallway. I still have wines from 2012 aging very well.

Cold temps are best for storage, but more importanly, minimize temp fluctuations. I'd personally invest in a house with a basement before considering a wine fridge. I dont think a glorified dorm fridge would keep 30 bottles of wine at a stable temp anyways, you'd be better off bulk aging as a larger volume is more resistant to temp fluctuations.

Yeah, I'd agree on the glorified dorm fridge. I was thinking something more like the following:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Whynter-28-Bottle-Thermoelectric-Wine-Cooler-WC-28S/202555751

There are different sizes and grades of this sort of thing. Would this be too cheesy? If I could keep stuff at 60 for at least three or four months I think I could actually make a hobby out of winemaking. A house with a basement is not in the cards.

brianpablo I know things are tough down there right now. But if you own your apartment or are going to stay a long time you could install a mini split air conditioning system con control and maintain a room for ageing.

There's no reason that fridge won't work, but it limits you to keeping 28 bottles only. I like the idea of an air conditioner, they do make them with a dryer vent hose that blows the hot air out a window, and they cost about the same as the fridge, at least they do here. It will use more electricity, though, but with a whole room kept at a stable temp you can have multiple batches going. With the fridge you'd be limited to 1-2 full size batches per year if you're aging 6-12 months. You'll get more experience out of multiple batches, so if you do get the fridge you can stick with 1 gal batches to get some diversity in. If you get an air conditioner, you can stick with 1 gal, or even move up to 5-6 gal batches. Either one will work, it will just be a different level of investment in the hobby.

Thanks, this is helpful. I think this is answering my basic question, which is that I should figure out a way to chill this wine rather than leaving it to chance in the warm weather. I'm looking at a number of different options, including bringing in several wine fridges, borrowing idle fridge capacity from friends, and perhaps using an office server closet that's kept cool. Will keep exploring different ideas.

OK, I've got it sorted out. I'm going to use the sprawling server closet in the office, which is kept at around 65. That might be on the warm side of things but I think I can talk them into getting it down to 60 or so. Problem solved - thanks everyone!